Mummy Examination

In 1931, twenty-eight years after the death of David E. George, a team of doctors examined the mummy in hopes of definitively proving or disproving it as the body of John Wilkes Booth. One newspaper described it as “dark brown in color, chipped around the edges, but perfectly embalmed with mercury.” The morbid description continues, revealing that “Souvenir hunters [had] chopped off the right toe and snipped away most of the long, flowing mustache.” The above photograph shows the doctors examining the inside of the mummy, which lies facedown.